On Being Ordinary, or common

The world is obsessed with fame, or at least notoriety. We are, as a race, continuously seeking approval from our fellow humans, affirmation that we're 'ok.' It had escalated in recent years (or perhaps generations) to the point that it has sadly become more important for us to receive adulation, acceptance, admiration, than it has to look for what is right.  One of the things I struggled with as a child was the fact that my mother ALWAYS compared us to each other, and most of us were regularly lacking. There were generations of her mothers who had felt less than special, my mother was the oldest, but not the favourite of my grandmother, and then my aunt had died. My grandmother was the oldest daughter, but the baby was the favourite. And my Great Grandmother had been banished from her home when her mother died of a broken heart because her favourite children, twins, had died crossing a lake in winter. 

I was certainly never the favourite, still am not. And I've always felt that while my mothers all went to church as young girls, I don't believe any of them were ever well taught their Lutheran faith. Their hope was in approval and affection of the people around them. 

I, like every other young girl I know of wanted approval when I was a kid. Usually I heard accolades like, "well that was fine, but your sister did better." or "pretty good for someone who didn't try very hard." 

When I was a young teen it bothered me and I dealt with it by switching gears or quitting. Sometimes I think it comes from being of a line of people who moved on to the next thing. 

Somewhere along the line I realised that I couldn't please people because I wasn't perfect, I was just me. And then I started learning more about our faith as Lutherans. 

My mothers (grand, great, etc...) were all raised Lutheran but, sadly, I don't think they were well catechised enough to understand that we can't be perfect, God was perfect for us. And that's where things have diverged for me. 

I am who I am and I can do what I can do. In fact I can do a lot of things, fairly well, with ease. And some things take a little more work, and some a lot more work. One of my failings is I do tend to stick to the many things I can do well enough without working too hard at it (which gives me more time for the many other interests I have). 

Anyway, what I've determined is that good enough is perfectly fine. As good as everyone else is also perfectly fine. I don't want to be the best. I don't want to be the smartest. I don't want to be first. I want to be me. And ordinary average me is absolutely good enough. 

Because God loves me, ordinary me, average me, imperfect me, jack of all master of none me. He died for me whether I'm first last or in between. He died for me whether I'm famous on TV or I'm never on TV (and Please, I'd rather not be on TV again, I had my 15 minutes many years ago and I don't need them). He loved me enough to reconcile Himself with me, rather than requiring me to be perfect for Him so that I could spend eternity in His presence. And I am content with that.

My prayer for my children is simply that. That they Love God and Love their Neighbour, stay curious about the world, and are content with what they are given. Certainly we always try again, and strive for better, that's human. But this obsession with being the most, the best, the smartest out of everyone ever. Well, there's only one of those. And unless you really are a genius and are able to be THE smartest. Be content with who you are and be you, certainly be the best you that you can, but you don't have to be more than you. and fame is over rated and comes at too big of a cost most of the time. 

History may be told about the movers and shakers in life, but it largely ignores the vast bulk of society that just lives their lives. The irony is God does not. He died for each and every one of the common folk and the movers and shakers. And when our trust is in Him and his forgiveness found in Christ. Ordinary isn't really quite so ordinary.  And when our trust is in being special to man, being special isn't all that special either, because it will not last. So, I will continue in my many vocations, and I'll be perfectly happy to be ignored by history because God loves me, and that will last for all eternity.

SPW Communications MB Post 1

I like Brickmania. They are a company that produces lego sets and books, and sells specialised parts and lego kits dealing with military history, modern military equipment, and some stuff from science fiction.

My favourite stuff of theirs is the WWII military vehicles and weapons. I especially like their instruction books for kits they have made or sell. These instruction books give you step by step instructions on how to build different things from whatever the topic of the book is, like airplanes, tanks, artillary, and other vehicles. If you're interested in these kinds of instruction books, here is a link to the book, Rats & Foxes, which is all about the North African Campaign. 

One of my favourite designs from the Rats and Foxes instruction book, is that for the GMC 30 CWT Truck of the British LRDG.

Another interesting fact about these books is they give you the history or details about the set you will build. Here is the information about the 30 CWT of the LRDG.

"The long distances of the patrols required special vehicles for which civilian trucks were acquired and customised to the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) needs. Each patrol contained several heavily modified GMC 30 CWT (imperial hundredweight) trucks, each carrying a three man crew and a variety of heavy weapons and supplies. Special equipment included sand channels attached to the side of each truck, which were also outfitted with extra large radiators connected by a hose to a specially designed condenser canister. This allowed the LRDG trucks to operate over long distances in the extremely hot desert environment."

This is a picture of the kit for the Opel Blitz lightweight truck, which is also an instruction set in the book Rats and Foxes.

Finally, if you'd like to learn more about the North African Campaign during WWII, Wikipedia has a nice informative article to get the basics.

British Crusader tank passes a destroyed and smoking German Panzer IV tank during Operation Crusader, November 1941

Italian Empire in November of 1942

A British Matilda Mk II named "Glenorchy" of Major K.P. Harris, MC, commander of 'D' Squadron, 7th Royal Tank Regiment during Operation Compass displaying an Italian flag captured at Tobruk, 24 January 1941

I hope you found this interesting and have fun learning more about the North Africa Campaign and Brickmania.

SPW Communications MB Brickmania Part 2

 For this post I would like to tell you about something else Brickmania does that is really fun.

They have a YouTube channel called Brickmania TV which tells you about all their products, stores, and places where you can see their displays.

Here is the link to Brickmania TV. They also do videos about new releases.

One of the things I really like about Brickmania TV is that they do reviews of the sets they sell, and also the instruction books, like this one from the book Great War Bricks. Although, technically this is more of a drama of the kits from the book not a straight review.

This is a video on Brickmania TV that is all about a game they came up with called Microbrick Battles. This video is a D-Day battle from World War II. Microbrick Battles are intended to be a a board game played with LEGOs. 

Finally, Brickmania has made one 3+ minute video portraying the Capture of the Amiens Gun from World War I. This video is not only fun, but also educational. In it they give you facts about the real events from this battle using LEGO brick animation. You can check on Wikipedia to see how accurate this video is.

I hope you enjoy exploring Brickmania TV

From 16 June 2020, lost and forgotten, Finally posted in October!

The last time I got out of the house, well, out of the compound, was 8 March for Church. We had a normally busy week planned, and then the husband and #2 Son were going to go hike Mt Kenya. The night they left our house for a scout's house closer to the 6am drop off point, we'd heard about one case of Coronavirus COVID-19 in Kenya. That week-end the kids had ballet and rehearsals for the planned up-coming ballet production of Peter Pan. But, because I have an 18 yr old, he walked them down to the rehearsal, and back, about 2km each way.

My busy week wasn't quite as busy as I'd thought it would be as my youngest and I had gotten a cold and had missed all our fun activities for the week. We were both feeling a little better but still coughing on Sunday the 15th  so we stayed home from church. And then that evening the government here closed all the schools in the country, and locked down the airports. And that was that. When the husband and the son returned from Mt Kenya, exhilarated, and exhausted, we shifted to a new normal of dad home all the time. 

But little else has changed for us. The kids still have ballet multiple times a week, it's just online now, not in person. The homeschool group that three of our kids have been attending for three years is on hiatus, as is Angus' play group. But the kids still talk to their friends online. And they're still working on school same as always. 

Anyway, here's the husband and #2 Son and the other scouts hiking up Mt Kenya, the week before it all went pear shaped!

Life Happens

Originally Written in May 2019

I was showing my 17 yr old how to create a blog and pulled this up as an example. Whoopsie Daisies! I haven't posted here since 2014.

Again, not like anyone really reads this, but hey! If I tried harder, maybe people would. I'm pretty sure that not posting leads to dead blogs, and posting regularly leads to not dead blogs.

Anyway, in the last 5 years we've moved away from the middle of the US to Africa - Huzzah! So I had to change the title of my blog since I'm not living in America right now.

I've thought about the blog a LOT lately because I deal with a lot of cross-cultural things around here. We blend into East African life here because of my being Malaysian on the Inside. There's a lot of cross-over here. This, of course, makes me more comfortable with the culture here than I ever was in the regular 'ole US of A.

My only excuse is that we ended up having a fifth kid, retiring from the Air Force, becoming Lutheran Missionaries, and moving to Kenya in the last 5 years.

Interestingly this has given me more fodder for this blog.

We are once again living the expat life, and loving it.

Now posting in April 2020

Grand Hopes

Ahh, surprise! I wanted to blog daily, and I haven't been on since July. Sad, but true.

Good thing no one reads this blog. Of course, if anyone did I might actually feel pressure to post!

It's been a busy few months, mostly cooking baby, but a few road trips, a renaissance festival as vikings, a few parades, and more cooking baby.

Big news is we've applied for (and looks like we'll be receiving a call) to be Missionaries for the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod. What does this have to do with anything Malaysian? Well, originally we thought they might send us to SE Asia, since we do have much more Asian experience. We are, it looks like, however, going to Nairobi Kenya.

I am terribly excited about this. My AFS connections extend to Nairobi and I'm looking forward to learning much about Africa! And, Africa is closer to Malaysia than here! Also closer to India.

Right now, with baby coming any day, I'm nesting a lot, and I find myself constantly trying to decide what to toss, what to save in storage for some day in the distant future and what to bring with, possibly, and what to bring with, definitely!

I found out today that our weight allowance will be 5,600lbs. I knew we weren't taking furniture with us. But we're definitely NOT taking furniture with us at that weight limit. Now the real test becomes how many books can we bring for that weight limit. Clothes are easy. Toys are easy. But books and kitchen stuff... That will be a test!

And the big thing is we have no idea how long we'll be in Kenya, or overseas. We've applied for Career missionary and we are perfectly willing to be there long term. But what stuff do you store for 20 years? 30 years? What's the point in storing it for that long? Will we even come back?

A friend of mine said, when I told her we were going, that she didn't think we'd ever come back permanently. She might just be right. Who knows.

In order to get the kids excited about Africa (I had them excited about SE Asia because Nenek lives there), we watched Out of Africa (they are SO excited about the animals). I keep thinking of Karen Blixen and her limoges. Of course I don't bring my Wedgewood. But what if we end up retiring in Africa at the end? Why keep it? Sigh....

A friend said I shouldn't bring anything of value to me in case we have to leave quickly sometime and leave it behind. But, what's the point of having things, I don't have actually valuable anything, just some pretties (ok, a LOT), if you just keep them in storage. I think there are some that will end up getting packed and brought with me.

Now I am extremely thankful that I bought a scale that goes to 550lbs because I can easily weigh boxes and piles to know how much things will weigh! I can get a really really good idea of how much things weigh.

To do this, Mr Top Gun will, of course, be retiring from the Air Force next summer. I wonder if they'd do our final move to Africa? Probably not... But hey, the US military will pay to move our stuff one last time, and they'll move 18,000lbs.... Maybe I'll look into that! Definitely wouldn't have 18,000 lbs of stuff to move, but then we wouldn't have to decide about quite so much! ;) Of course, where to store it in the interim would be tricky.... But right now it's just conjecture because we have to be offered the call first.

In the meantime, I'm looking at recipes for Kenyan food, and starting to expose everyone to Swahili and thinking about what clothes we absolutely won't need there.

Packing up after Christmas will be extremely interesting! So much to throw away!

Hari Raya

Hari Raya is the Malaysian common terminology for Eid, the month after Ramadan. In Malaysia, and throughout the Muslim world it's a pretty big party. I'm not Muslim so I really don't know all the reasoning for the holiness of this. BUT, I do know the food! Especially in Malaysia. Oh the food! And new clothes, and going to friends houses, and relatives, and.... so much fun!

Anyway, It's coming on Monday. My host mom in KL is getting ready to go to my "little" brother's house, my aunt has arrived in in KL to spend time with the family there. I'm sure they've made all the biscuits, and are getting ready to make all the ketupat
 

and rendang
 

and all the other incredibly yummy foods for Hari Raya.



I wish I was there. Well, sort of, I can't eat sugar or carbs right now,

 

so I don't want to be there and not be able to eat all the raya yummies. But I miss the family. So, here's a Hari Raya card image for everyone!